Unable to account for this change, Deerslayer could restrain his
impatience no longer. Hitching his body along, with the utmost
caution, he got his eye at the bullet hole, and fortunately commanded
a very tolerable view of the point. The canoe, by one of those
imperceptible impulses that so often decide the fate of men as well
as the course of things, had inclined southerly, and was slowly
drifting down the lake. It was lucky that Deerslayer had given it
a shove sufficiently vigorous to send it past the end of the point,
ere it took this inclination, or it must have gone ashore again.
As it was, it drifted so near it as to bring the tops of two or
three trees within the range of the young man's view, as has been
mentioned, and, indeed, to come in quite as close proximity with
the extremity of the point as was at all safe. The distance could
not much have exceeded a hundred feet, though fortunately a light
current of air from the southwest began to set it slowly off shore.
Deerslayer now felt the urgent necessity of resorting to some
expedient to get farther from his foes, and if possible to apprise
his friends of his situation. The distance rendered the last
difficult, while the proximity to the point rendered the first
indispensable.
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